Search Strategies

Recommended Databases

The following databases are recommended specifically for this topic as well as other education-related searches.

Google Custom Search - EE / PBE / PBL

This Google Custom Search is designed to search only resources having to do with the contents of this Libguide.

Carrot2 Search

Search for ebooks!

Google Book Search

Search tips for this topic...

If you would like to extend your research on any of these topics, feel free to use the suggested keywords below. Try using different forms of each word, as well (for example: sustainable or sustainability).

Environmental Education:
green education
sustainable education
ecology education
outdoor education
nature education

Place-Based Education:
community based
community school
place based learning
david sobel

Project-Based Learning:
project method of teaching
inquiry
problem based learning
21st century skills
collaborative

Any combination of these words may be used to search library catalogs and journal databases using boolean operators like, AND, OR & NOT.

When using search engines like Google, Carrot2 or Amazon.com, you can use tricks like adding quotation marks "" around exact phrases (such as "environmental education"). Google will also recognize the use of the + symbol to search hits containing 2 specified terms (for example: "environmental education" + achievement). The + symbol operates the same way as AND does in boolean. Finally, Google will also recognize the - symbol to exclude any sites containing terms that you deem irrelevant to your search, much as NOT does in boolean language.

Keeping track of sources...

As I searched using my keywords, I found many excellent sources that I wanted to remember for this project. This would have been quite difficult to do without the help of the social bookmarking site, Delicious ( http://delicious.com ). After adding a handy bookmarking tool to my toolbar on Firefox, I was able to quickly bookmark and then tag each of my sites as I found them. Delicious then captured the bookmarks and stored them in a "cloud" where I was able to access them from any computer with internet access. The site has been invaluable to me not only for this class, but also as a way of keeping track of excellent lesson plans or history websites that I run across. Below, you will find my Delicious tag cloud where you can browse the sites that I have bookmarked by topic - many of them related to Wisconsin charter schools, PBL, PBE or EE.

Search for more information using Google!

Google Web Search